In recent years, there have been increasing demands for higher strength in the steel sheet which is used for automobiles etc. In particular, for the purpose of improving collision safety etc., high strength steel sheet with a tensile maximum stress of 900 MPa or more is also being used. Such high strength steel sheet is inexpensively formed in large volumes by press working it in the same way as soft steel sheet and is being used as structural members.
However, in recent years, along with the rapid increase in strength of high strength steel sheet, in particular in high strength steel sheet with a tensile maximum stress of 900 MPa or more, the problem has arisen of the shapeability becoming insufficient and of working accompanied with local deformation such as stretch-formability becoming difficult. For this reason, in high strength steel sheet with a high tensile maximum stress as well, realization of sufficient workability has become demanded.
PLT 1 discloses, as art for improving the bendability of high strength steel sheet, steel sheet with a tensile strength of 780 to 1470 MPa, a good shape, and excellent bendability which is obtained by taking steel sheet which has a microstructure mainly comprised of bainite or tempered martensite, making the amount of Si which is contained in the steel, by mass %, 0.6% or less, cooling down to a temperature at least 50° C. lower than a predetermined bainite transformation temperature to promote transformation from austenite to bainite or martensite and thereby rendering the volume rate of residual austenite which is contained in the structure and has a martensite transformation point of −196° C. or more 2% or less.
PLT 2 discloses, as art for improving the shapeability of high strength steel sheet, the method of improving the ductility and stretch flangeability by cooling steel sheet which has been hot rolled down to 500° C. or less, coiling it, then reheating it to 550 to 700° C., then successively performing a cold rolling process and continuous annealing process so that a second phase which contains residual austenite and further contains a low temperature transformation phase becomes fine in average particle size and so that the amount of residual austenite, amount of solid solution C in the residual austenite, and average particle size satisfy predetermined relationship formulas.
PLT 3 discloses, as art for improving the stretch flangeability of high strength steel sheet, steel sheet which is reduced in standard difference in hardness inside of the steel sheet and which is given equivalent hardness in the entire steel sheet region.
PLT 4 discloses, as art for improving the stretch flangeability of high strength steel sheet, steel sheet which is reduced in hardness of hard portions by heat treatment and which is reduced in hardness difference with the soft parts.
PLT 5 discloses, as art for improving the stretch flangeability of high strength steel sheet, rendering the hard portions the relatively soft bainite so as to reduce the difference in hardness from soft parts.
PLT 6 discloses, as art for improving the stretch flangeability of high strength steel sheet, steel sheet which has a structure comprised of, by area rate, 40 to 70% of tempered martensite and a balance of ferrite where a ratio between an upper limit value and a lower limit value of a concentration of Mn in the cross-section of the thickness direction of the steel sheet is reduced.